Summer Speaker Series Shares Cultural Wisdom

Gwen Carter shows visitors a tukes (digging stick) during her August 3, 2019 talk on Traditional Nez Perce Food Gathering.

NPS

The Summer Speaker Series at Bear Paw Battlefield and Big Hole National Battlefield is wrapping up after another successful year. Between June and August, over 700 visitors enjoyed presentations given at the Blaine County Museum in Chinook, Montana and the Visitor Center at Big Hole National
Battlefield outside of Wisdom, Montana. This unique learning experience gives the visitors to our sites the opportunity to interact with and learn from a variety of cultural demonstrators. Cultural demonstrators and speakers covered a wide spectrum of historical and cultural topics in the weekend talks. Visitors learned about various aspects of Nez Perce culture and practices, history of the
1877 conflict and flight of the Nez Perce, and learned of military experiences of 1877 via a living history
portrayal of Major Charles Rawn. Speakers shared their rich knowledge of Nez Perce dances, songs, and music, Nez Perce relationship to the land, and traditional cultural foods, making for an unparalleled National Park Service experience.
“We are incredibly grateful for and humbled by the speakers we host and the knowledge they share with visitors and park staff,” said Supervisory Park Ranger Mandi Wick, “and see the series as a highlight of Big Hole’s and Bear Paw’s annual interpretive programming.” The Summer Speaker Series is sponsored by Glacier National Park Conservancy with the objective to foster priceless connections between the cultural demonstrators and the visitors and bring history alive at our sites.